Telenor and Telia have entered into an agreement on network sharing to create Denmark's best mobile network. The agreement will have a significant impact on both the customer experience and the companies' finances. Telia and Telenor will be holding a joint press conference today at 11 am at Hotel Phoenix, Bredgade 37, Copenhagen.
This is a historic day in the Danish telecom industry. The two largest telecom providers in Scandinavia, Telia and Telenor, have entered into an agreement to share their mobile networks in Denmark. Telia and Telenor will also be establishing a common infrastructure company to build the joint network. The agreement involves the 2G, 3G and 4G (LTE) networks, and ambitions for the agreement are high:

"The decision to merge our network investments and network competencies is a real milestone. Together, we will create Denmark's best mobile network and thereby provide the best customer experience within smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband," say Søren Abildgaard, CEO, Telia, and Jon Erik Haug, CEO, Telenor.

High ambitions in Denmark

With this agreement, the two companies give each other access to existing towers in areas where they would each otherwise have had to build their own. In addition, future new cellular towers will be built jointly by Telenor and Telia. This will reduce both companies' spending on mobile infrastructure while at the same time allowing them to expand the joint network more quickly than they would have been able to do on their own.

"Both Telia and Telenor have high ambitions in Denmark. However, to achieve these ambitions, we need to do two things successfully: We need to provide a world-class customer experience. And we need to secure the scale of our network to ensure that it is also profitable to do business in Denmark in the long term. By sharing networks, we are taking a giant and strategically important step on both fronts, making us even better prepared to face the competition," say Jon Erik Haug and Søren Abildgaard.

Customers will begin to feel the effects of the network partnership right away. As part of the agreement, Telenor and Telia are already in the process of giving each other access to existing 2G and 3G positions within the framework of the cellular tower legislation - as well as planning new joint 2G and 3G positions.

"We are making our network even more finely meshed and thus improving the speech and data coverage of both companies, which will directly benefit customers. We will be improving the customer experience month by month, and we are already well underway," conclude Søren Abildgaard and Jon Erik Haug.

Partners in infrastructure, competitors in products

The partnership only covers the radio access network, i.e. the antennas, towers and transmission equipment that establish connections to mobile units. The partnership does not involve the two companies' core networks where their services are produced - the core networks will continue to be operated separately. Telia and Telenor will continue as two independent providers and will in future also compete aggressively for customers through different products, services and prices. Telenor and Telia will report the establishment of the new joint network company to the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority.